Timezones

Bob Devine devine at cookie.dec.com
Fri Mar 4 04:33:33 AEST 1988


> >I have discovered that there is no such thing as GMT time anymore.
>  
> Although GMT may not be "official" any more, I maintain that as
> long as someone uses the expression, and other persons still
> understand it, then the concept still exists.
 
and
> I think the new term for GMT is UTC - Universal Time Coordinated,
> not UCT. It is going to be incorporated in the new ISO C standard
> instead of the GMT.

  The world-wide authority on time is now the International Time
Bureau in Paris.  No longer does the British observatory at Greenwich
the official source (the observatory was originally set up to deal with
the problem of determining the correct longitude at sea).  So, even
though old habits die hard, "GMT" is not to be used.  An acceptable
name is also "Universal Time".

  "UTC" is, in English, "Coordinated Universal Time".  All member
nations of BIH coordinate their clocks with the official ones.  Twice
a year, someone has to take a portable clock from Fort Collins,
Colorado, to Paris for comparison with the clocks there.  BIH has
no power except to issue recommendations on time, note, this includes
leap seconds.

Bob Devine   ...!decwrl!cookie.dec.com!devine



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